As Russian forces threaten to encircle troops on the Donbass, Ukraine has called on the U.S. to launch multiple rockets.
The United States will not send rocket systems to Ukraine that could reach Russia, President Joe Biden said Monday.
The comments of the President of the United States followed reports that the Biden administration was preparing to send advanced long-range rocket systems to Kyiv for its fight against Russia.
“We will not send rocket systems to Ukraine” that could reach Russia, Biden told reporters after returning to the White House on Monday, according to Reuters.
Ukrainian officials have been looking for a longer-range system called the Multi-Launch Rocket System, or MLRS, that could fire a rocket bomb hundreds of miles away. It was unclear what system Biden was referring to in his statements.
President Joe Biden speaks to the media when he returns from Wilmington, Delaware, to the White House on May 30, 2022 [Joshua Roberts/Reuters]
CNN and The Washington Post reported Friday that the Biden administration was inclined to send the MLRS and another system, the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, known as HIMARS, as part of a package. largest military aid agency in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian government has urged the West to equip it with more powerful weapons to turn the tide of the war, which is now in its fourth month. U.S. officials had said such weapons systems are being actively considered.
The United States has supplied thousands of Stinger portable anti-aircraft missiles and Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukrainian forces, as well as advanced drones and field artillery.
But Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned Western powers last week not to provide Ukraine with weapons capable of attacking Russian territory, warning that the move would be a “serious step towards escalation.” unacceptable “.
Ukraine’s foreign minister has said that the urgency of his country’s need for larger weapons can be summed up in two abbreviations: MLRS – multiple rocket launch systems and ASAP – as soon as possible.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on May 25 that the situation in the eastern Donbas region was “extremely bad”. Rocket systems could help Ukrainian forces try to retake places like the southern city of Kherson from Russian occupiers who invaded Ukraine on February 24th.
Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Kuleba said he had about 10 bilateral meetings with other leaders whose countries have such systems, The Associated Press reported.
“My answer is, ‘Have the Americans given it to you yet?'” He said, referring to the American leadership. “So that’s the burden of being a leader. Everyone is looking at you. So Washington needs to keep its promise and provide us with multiple rocket launch systems as soon as possible. Others will follow.”
“If we do not get an MLRS as soon as possible, the situation in Donbas will get even worse than it is now,” he added. “Every day someone sitting in Washington, Berlin, Paris and other capitals, and thinking about whether or not to do something, costs us lives and territories.”
More than 4,000 people have died in Ukraine and millions more displaced since the Russian invasion began.